During the 2016 and 2017 growing seasons in Shandong, a province in the North China Plain, using Zhengdan 958 and Denghai 605 for five treatments, including M (random sowing after mixing in the same proportion), 1:1 (raw ratio of ZD958 to DH605 is 1:1), 2:2 (raw ratio of ZD958 to DH605 is 2:2), and two monoculture treatments (SDH605 and SDH605). This experiment was conducted to explore the effects of mixed-cropping on grain yield, amount of dry matter of groups, net photosynthetic rate, anti-oxidative metabolism, canopy structure of summer maize under a density of 82 500 plants ha -1. The two-year results showed that mixed-cropping significantly improved canopy light transmittance, leaf area index, chlorophyll content, net photosynthetic rate and dry matter accumulation. Superoxide dismutase (SOD), peroxidase (POD) activities and soluble protein content increased significantly, but the content of MDA decreased under mixed-cropping. The grain yield of summer maize increased significantly under mixed-cropping, due to the increase in grains per spike and 1000-kernel weight. Compared with SZD958 and SDH605, the two-year average grain yields of M, 1:1, 2:2 increased by 11.47%, 8.70%, 8.48% and 9.30%, 6.42%, 6.20%, respectively. There were no significant difference among M, 1:1 and 2:2 treatments. Mixed-cropping formed high-efficiency canopy structure, created better aeration and transmittance conditions, delayed leaf senescence, slowed down the decrease of leaf area index and chlorophyll content after anthesis, maintained higher net photosynthetic rate and increased dry matter accumulation, eventually resulted in the higher grain yield of summer maize. It is concluded that mixed-cropping with reasonable varieties can significantly increase the yield of close planting summer maize, which is one of the optional cultivation patterns to increase maize yield in the Yellow-Huaihe-Haihe Rivers Plain．
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